To those waiting on BitInstant, keep the faith!

[zkay]

After some back and fourth, Yankee has resolved this issue to my satisfaction. He reimbursed me the difference in BTC between the exchange price as it was when I made my order, and how it was first funded to me (a nearly $20 difference). You will be made whole! Just be patient! See last post for details.

Hello

I created a cash deposit->btc address order this morning and it has yet to be funded. Has anyone else had issues today? I have seen some complaints about timeliness lately, but just wondering if it's kept up for everyone or if it's just me.

I did email their support and they said they were having some issues filling orders, but that it should be filled within "a couple hours". This was 5 hours ago, and still no BTC.

Thanks

-zkay

[1713870508]

1713870508

[1713870508]

1713870508

[zkay]

Just received this via email:

Hello,

Due to heavy customer volume and technical difficulties on our end I regret to inform you that we are experiencing massive delays in processing orders.

Rest assured your funds are safe and will eventually be processed. Our web developers are working over time to fix these problems.

Regrettably, it may be several days before your funds are successfully transferred. Again, your funds are safe and your order will eventually be processed and you will be entitled to a refund of your fees.

Thank you for your patience. You will be hearing from us again.

---
Sincerely,
Seth

So, hopefully my 6.1 BTC order is filled in a day or two.

[yvv]

Rest assured your funds are safe and will eventually be processed. Our web developers are working over time to fix these problems.

Sounds like a bullshit. What have web developers to do with this? They are out of funds, and they are trying to get some btc somewhere, to give them to you for usd you already paid. This is fine, your funds are safe, but you will get your btc for $80 or something.

[zkay]

Rest assured your funds are safe and will eventually be processed. Our web developers are working over time to fix these problems.

Sounds like a bullshit. What have web developers to do with this? They are out of funds, and they are trying to get some btc somewhere, to give them to you for usd you already paid. This is fine, your funds are safe, but you will get your btc for $80 or something.

They say in their disclaimer that they don't sell BTC themselves but simply buy it off the exchange. At the moment the exchange seems to be working just fine. Not sure what web developers have to do with it either. Hopefully we can get some more info from a staff member.

[Splatter]

I'm in the same boat, It seems we all have to wait it out together.

"Pay for Your Bitcoins in Under an Hour" my arse, 24 hrs + and counting.

[zkay]

I'm in the same boat, It seems we all have to wait it out together.

"Pay for Your Bitcoins in Under an Hour" my arse, 24 hrs + and counting.

Indeed. I sent Yankee a PM with the thread url, hopefully he drops in. Still no coins on my end.

[zkay]

So far, no reply from Yankee, neither here (obviously) or by PM. I have been getting messages by email from "Seth" at their help desk. He did process my order, but for the incorrect amount of BTC! This was our latest exchange:

Hello,

Processed! Sorry for the delay.

---
Sincerely,
Seth

My response:

Hello Seth

I am wanting to clarify something. I see 3.8btc sitting in my wallet
currently. Is the other 2.3btc on it's way from another account?

If not, we are going to have a problem over this. I had sent money
thinking I was buying 6.1btc at the price that was set that morning. The
subsequent rally should not have negatively penalized me.

Please get back to me as soon as possible. Really hoping this is all a
misunderstanding and the second half of the transaction is on it's way.

Thanks.

His response:

Hello,

Unfortunately, we cannot secure the price until the money actually gets to the exchange in order to buy the Bitcoins. And that's where the hangup was. When you create the order on our website it is only an estimate, because the exchange rate often fluctuates wildly between when you create the order and when the bitcoins are purchased. Hope that helps!

---
Sincerely,
Seth

My reply:

Absolutely NOT good enough, Seth. Let me quote from your FAQ,

"
What happens if a bomb drops on the data center hosting your servers?

We imagine that it will collapse causing a lot of damage and we will need to switch to alternate hosting. In the meantime, our records are held in multiple locations with extreme paranoid care taken and we will investigate any and all failed transactions. Once a transaction is entered into our system it will be honored, any payments that come to us will always result in a payment into a customer's exchange account, or if truly awful circumstances prevent this then we will always make customers whole. After all, you face no greater risk paying us than paying an exchange directly.

Rest assured that if you make a transaction and the electrical grid suddenly fails due to alien invasion or zombie outbreak, we will work alongside the military to ensure customers are refunded for failed transactions, zombies are not likely to find and destroy every copy of our encrypted transaction records and the encryption keys are known only to us.

We accept no liability for delays caused by zombies, but we will honor our promise to refund fees."

NOWHERE on your site does it say anything like what you have responded to me with. If the valuation changes in the time it takes you to fill an order, how is that the customer's fault? This goes completely without mentioning that during this entire "crisis" of yours, the site WAS STILL ACCEPTING ORDERS! What sort of larceny is this?

I paid right before a rally. This could just as easily been right before a crash. I was quoted 6.1 BTC at the time of my transaction. I fully expect to be made whole on my purchase.

I have posted a thread  regarding this on bitcointalk which you can find here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=155605.0


I eagerly await your response.

I have sent Yankee ANOTHER PM about this issue. I have also PM'd Gareth and posted in their "Newbie Support" thread.

[zkay]

It would seem Yankee is contradicting his support staff. I am going to just assume that Yankee is in the right, being the CEO.

Hey All,

Sorry no one has responded here in 2 days, we've been overwhelmed with support this week and BTC Address is down for the day.

If you have a Bitcoin Address order, we will always refund and honor the price at deposit so dont worry that the price is rising.

Its frustrating when you cannot reach us, and I am doing everything to reduce that time.

We are looking for support staff - Apply here if you are interested (experience necessary!) https://www.hireart.com/login?token=cbfykjd8

Right now, the fastest way to reach support is by emailing support@bitinstant.com

When you do, it goes into a ticket que and someone will answer. Sending multiple emails will not speed it up.

Thanks for your patience

Charlie

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=128314.msg1652959#msg1652959

[🏰 TradeFortress 🏰]

You might as well as buy bitcoins from BtcQuick now.

[rm187]

I did a USD -> MtGox acct.

Waiting 12+ hours for bitinstant email. ZipZap e-mailed was instant.

This is beyond server/coding problems. Maybe delays from the amount of money they are ordering but I'm sure they have USD

[coinuser4000]

It would seem Yankee is contradicting his support staff. I am going to just assume that Yankee is in the right, being the CEO.

Hey All,

Sorry no one has responded here in 2 days, we've been overwhelmed with support this week and BTC Address is down for the day.

If you have a Bitcoin Address order, we will always refund and honor the price at deposit so dont worry that the price is rising.

Its frustrating when you cannot reach us, and I am doing everything to reduce that time.

We are looking for support staff - Apply here if you are interested (experience necessary!) https://www.hireart.com/login?token=cbfykjd8

Right now, the fastest way to reach support is by emailing support@bitinstant.com

When you do, it goes into a ticket que and someone will answer. Sending multiple emails will not speed it up.

Thanks for your patience

Charlie

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=128314.msg1652959#msg1652959

I need a job, I can be customer support.

I work for BTC too!

[Yankee (BitInstant)]

Hey,

No one stole your money, Im sorry for the delay.

you didnt even post your Order information in the thread. Please email me your order info asap so I can process

Charlie@bitinstant.com

[zkay]

Hey,

No one stole your money, Im sorry for the delay.

you didnt even post your Order information in the thread. Please email me your order info asap so I can process

Charlie@bitinstant.com

Hi Charlie,

I have sent you an email and a PM here.

Hope to hear from you.

-zkay

[zkay]

Yankee has replied to my PM and this situation should be resolved momentarily. Thanks a lot, Yankee.

[zkay]

This is still a problem. I have sent Yankee another PM and email.

[zkay]

Sent this to Yankee this morning. No response yet.

Hello Charlie I was looking more into the situation on my actual computer and I believe now that we are definitely misunderstanding eachother. Let me start by posting a screenshot of my account's balance as it is right now, with the transaction you are linking me in the foreground:



I received these 3.87BTC yesterday from Seth at your help desk. This is what has caused my entire issue. This order was filled at the (then current) market rate, when it should have been filled at the market rate as it was when I made the order. When I made the order, I was told I could expect to receive 6.1 BTC. I have thus far received 3.87BTC. I am expecting to receive 2.23 BTC to fulfill my order.

What can we do to remedy this? I likely won't be able to reply to email or PM's for much of tomorrow. I hope to get this resolved sooner rather than later. Please let me know. Thanks, -zkay

Hope to hear from him soon.

[zkay]

Crosspost from the newbie support thread:

I too put in an order through ZipZap to bitinstant....for a quite a bit of money. This was my first time using bitinstant. I have not received any deposit into my wallet. I received the email from Seth last night and I appreciate them letting us know, albeit generally, what's going on.

My question: When the orders do finally go through, will the bitcoins deposied into our accounts be based on the price when I placed my order? Or based on the price when it finally goes through. This could be quite a significant difference.

MS

Just a quick update from my post the other day:

After my orders processed last night, about 36 hours after they were was placed, I realized the BTC exchange rate used to calculate my order was messed up. The rate was significantly higher than the rate at in effect when I deposited my cash at CVS on the morning of 3/20 -- and my orders were for more than $1k.

I PMd Charlie/Yankee this afternoon, outlining what happened. I explained why I believed the amount I had received was in error, and asked to have the difference, around 5 BTC, sent to my wallet. About 30min later I had a response. After a couple clarifying messages back and forth, my account has now been credited the full amount that I was owed. So thank you bitinstant! I appreciate being able to work with you to get my issue solved. I am certainly happy, and will use their service again.

If you respectfully communicate with the team, and provide clear, concise information regarding your issue, they will work to resolve it to the best of their ability. No scam here. Just a legitimate business breaking new barriers and in the process going through some growing pains.

MS

How on earth did you get them to do it? I've been trying to get the btc that are owed me since yesterday with no luck. I've PM'd Yankee and Gareth and emailed Seth, all with no result. I'd appreciate any input.

If you haven't heard anything by Mon/Tues, I would just write PM Yankee again. Make sure you support what you are asking for clearly. For example, if you are asking for a different exchange rate like I was, look up the exact time your order processed on bitcoincharts.com and copy and paste that information into your email. Explain how you came up with the BTC figure you say you are owed. Make it clear, concise, without too much additional detail. Then wait a couple days.

How do I read this? I placed my order at 10:00am on 3/20/13, and paid for it at 10:40am 3/20/13. Which price are they honoring for you? Price at order, or price at deposit?



Or MtGox:





When I actually made the order it told me I could expect 6.1BTC for $300. Going by that chart, if I'm reading it correctly, that is a little more than I should have been getting for $300. I am willing to settle for this amount, even though the order sheet told me something different.

Going by these numbers, I am either owed (using the weighted closing price):

(10AM, Time of order) $300/$58.98=5.08BTC - 3.87BTC = 1.21BTC

OR

(10:40am, Time of deposit) $300/$59.30=5.05BTC - 3.87BTC = 1.18BTC

I appreciate your help in this.

I've tried emailing/PMing Yankee a few times after making my separate thread in services discussion. So far he seems confused, because he thought I hadn't received anything, whereas the real dispute is now that I have not received the amount of BTC I had ordered.

Like you said though, probably just takes time.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=128314.msg1669930#msg1669930

[zkay]

Yankee took care of this for me. We settled on an additional 2BTC, on top of the 3.87 BTC I received. I feel it is a fair settlement, TX below:

https://blockchain.info/tx/61508761b4e31ad4a85335ffdf364d42e6543d96535dd50a3a21952983fe037a

For what it's worth, I'd probably use BitInstant again.

[BlackPrapor]

Yankee took care of this for me. We settled on an additional 2BTC, on top of the 3.87 BTC I received. I feel it is a fair settlement, TX below:

https://blockchain.info/tx/61508761b4e31ad4a85335ffdf364d42e6543d96535dd50a3a21952983fe037a

For what it's worth, I'd probably use BitInstant again.

Lucky you, I've got some substantial amount of USD missing, when I tried to transfer between exchanges. Today got a reply from support asking for details. Hope it will be resolved soon too. IMHO they should implement client account DB. That orderID thing doesn't get saved anywhere, and if your order has failed or missing, or whatever, you won't get any email either to back reference it for support. Its just designed to screw with people.